Maryland men's basketball holds off Nebraska in 69-66 win, back at .500 in Big Ten play
- Ahmed Ghafir
- Jan 19
- 3 min read
It was far from pretty, but Maryland men’s basketball did enough for their seventh consecutive win against Nebraska, holding off a late run in a 69-66 win.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie posted his fourth 20-point game of the season after finishing with a game-high 22 points and five made threes, while Rodney Rice added 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and Selton Miguel added 13 points. Julian Reese finished with ten rebounds, his tenth game this season securing double digit rebounds, to help Maryland secure its 12th home win of the season – the most among any Division I team.
Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel would get the scoring going early with consecutive threes, but the offense would taper off with the two teams combining to shoot 5-of-13 from the field.
The Terps would capitalize from the free-throw line early to double up on the Huskers less than four minutes into the game while a beautiful feed from Derik Queen to Tafara Gapare in the paint pushed Maryland ahead 16-9 – the largest lead for either team at the time. But the Huskers would answer back with a 5-0 run with Andrew serving as the spark off Nebraska’s bench as he poured in 17 points, including 12 in the first half. Morgan’s timely jumpers tightened the game midway through the first half before Maryland’s offense went nearly four minutes without a bucket, allowing Nebraska to take a 31-26 lead after Ahron Ulis converted a layup at the rim with 3:20 left.
Maryland would answer back coming out of the final media timeout of the half, and for the first time in conference play, it’d be Jordan Geronimo who stepped up in the frontcourt.
Geronimo ended the cold spell with an and-one opportunity off a putback before Miguel’s second three tied the game at 31 with 2:19 left. Ja’Kobi Gillespie knocked down a pair of threes in the final 82 seconds of the first half to not only give Maryland a two-point lead heading into the break, but eclipse 1,000 career points.
Miguel would score the first seven points of the second half, and after Ja’Kobi Gillespie knocked down a free throw out of the first media timeout, Maryland clung onto a 47-42 lead before Nebraska quieted the sparse crowd with two quick buckets to make it a one-point game again. Nebraska would then take a 55-54 lead after Ahron Ulis split a pair of free throws with 8:59 remaining, but it’d mark the Huskers’ final lead of the day.
Maryland answered with a 10-0 run and it’d be none other than Rodney Rice to spark it with five consecutive points, forcing head coach Fred Hoiberg to call a 30-second timeout ahead of the media timeout. Rice extended the run with another jumper out of the media timeout before Gillespie would tack onto the run with his fourth made three, extending Maryland’s lead to 64-55. Julian Reese added a layup nearly two minutes later to maintain the nine-point advantage – and then Maryland went cold.
A pair of free throws from Brice Williams would tie the game at 66 with just 62 seconds left, capping off a 9-0 Husker run, as Ja’Kobi Gillespie would score Maryland’s next field to break the deadlock with just 40 seconds remaining. Reese’s second steal in the win proved to be the difference after forcing a turnover with 29 seconds left before Connor Essegian’s game-tying three-point attempt clunk off the rim in the closing seconds.
After moving to 14-5 (4-4), Maryland will look to overcome its road woes when they travel to face Illinois on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 9 PM.
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